2018-05-03 Assassin from Elsewhere
Linda is sitting at a table just outside the coffee shop, sipping coffee and looking over at the Daily Planet building. and sometimes glancing sidelong at Lexcorp. In a sense, they both were involved in making her what she is today. Forerunner as arrived in this world through the bleed, her target is nearby, her weapons are ready. She opens her mind, not transmitting her thoughts, simply using her telepathy as an extra sense so she can find her foe. She has a few back up items in case of interference. Forerunner does not like to lose. Jean Grey is over in Metropolis for personal reasons. She speaks over to a cell phone, "I understand you can't make it. I'll catch you a.." She pauses, sensing -something-. Something wrong. Her head cocks to the side. "Another time." She snaps the phone shut and her eyes flash, and she tries to sweep telepathically to search for more. Kal is floating high in the sky over the Daily Planet building. He was keeping watch over the city, his gaze sweeping along until he spotted Linda. A slight frown. "She's back in Metropolis." He states to himself. For now, he is not aware of Forerunner. Yet. At the faintest touch of another telepath, Forerunner hides her mind, telepathic camouflage is instinctive to her kind. They survived for centuries by being able to hide while Martians and Saturnians fought around them. She knows where to look now, she cloaks herself from sight and mind, stalking her prey. Linda spots Jean and waves, she sips her coffee, wondering if being here was a bad idea. She may be back in action, but Kal probably knows she is here already, is she ready to meet him if he drops in? It's that moment of another telepath feeling someone seeking out and then quickly cloaking themself that gets Jean's full attention. Not quite sure who or what - the evasion was too fast to get a good read, but she's aware that someone is hiding from her. So, Jean starts walking over in the direction she picked things up from, going faster. Kal is wrestling with a problem. He is considering changing back into his Clark persona to go speak to Jean and Linda. However something catches his attention and he flies down to the area where the two women are. Linda might notice the change in his costume design. He's not really the same man that she used to know. However the expression on his face is all business as he engages his many optical and auditory senses while searching the area. SHIELD agents tend to operate much like soldiers in the middle of a war. Ninety five percent boredom, and five percent sheer terror. In orbit, aboard the space station operated by SWORD, Avril Kincaid was deep in conversation with a sensor tech. She's been -trying- to figure out how to make the energy sensors more acute. But she has the best energy sensors anyone on Earth has ever -heard- of, permanently attached to her wrists. Speaking of those, a twinge through her neural link to the bands makes her look downward towards the Earth, "What the shit?" she asks as she holds a wrist up and scans more thoroughly. "That was a weird blip. I should investigate." she says as she heads for the airlock and steps out into space... to drop straight down towards where the energy blip was sensed. Adelah is so used to the dullness of where she lives that coming to Metropolis almost merited wearing shades. It's bright. Attractively bright, but still bright. She could appreciate this place against all the fog, rain, steam, smoke, and whatever else came out of other cities she's visited nearby. Business was business, though and some interest had been taken up here from someone regarding her businesses. Someone out here had some inquiries and she was here to answer it. Though, she arrived ahead of schedule and had time to spare. Perhaps she may have wanted to look into Metropolis a bit more after her last visit here on some official business. Linda sees Kal...and she sees Jean, but both seem to be looking for something. She frowns, wishing she still had angelic senses. What could be disturbing both Superman and Jean Grey? Kal can not SEE anything odd, whatever is going on has blocked his super vision entirely. Whoever or whatever it is that alerted him seems to also be masked against sound...however there is a faint trace of something alien to this planet that he can scent. Something kind of like the way J'onn smells to him, but not quite the same. Jean can not directly tell where the person hiding is...but perhaps she can figure out negatively, by locating a blank area in the background. Quasar drops from the skies, the bands detect the faint fraces of bled energy where something passed through into this universe from elsewhere. Adelah sees a brightly clad recognizable figure, Superman. She also sees another brightly clad figure nearby that she might not recognize...Quasar is much less well known. That's among the first things you learn as a telepath - when someone is hiding themselves, you don't look for what you can feel. You look where things aren't being felt. There is not one, on the surface level, it is very good telepathic camouflage. However, there are deeper levels, Jean can note enough to get the rough area. So, Jean's eyes flash as she goes to try and see if she can't get a bit more, broadcasting towards that area of emptiness A bluff, but hopefully closely projected enough to that area she -thinks- the being cloaking themself from her telepathy is to get them to break 'cover'. Kal is standing stock still, his eyes closed. He can't see it..which means something is there. He can't hear it either. Which means who or what it was, is able to cloak itself. He sniffs the air and then frowns. "J'onn? No..not him." His gaze narrows before he touches his ear. "Watchtower, this is Superman. Possible white martian sighting. But I can't be sure. Alert the proper agencies and factions." Golden glow coming from the wristbands and spreading over her whole body, Quasar is otherwise wearing pretty much the same colors as superman. But she doesn't even have to shed friction based heat as she simply absorbed that into the bands as she came down. Handy trick there. Either way, she drops down to land gently upon the streets and feels.. then sees Superman. "Well, guess I'm the backup then." she remarks as she starts doing active scans. Adelah's attention was pulled from her sightseeing to those gathered in the area. More bright things are here. Superman, some other figure in bright colors she doesn't recognize. "Are you meditating again? Like you were before? Why here of all places?" She asked of Superman as she approached him, completely oblivious of the circumstances currently going on. "It is unwise to just stand and meditate anywhere, but perhaps I am wrong, maybe people would see you. You do have the appearance of a traffic light... Both of you," she indicated Quasar, her eyes going upward momentarily as she noted where she just came from. "...Wait, what am I missing here? You just came from up there," she remarked to the latter hero by gesturing to the sky. "I require answers." Forerunner is cloaked mentally, fading into the background, but it is not perfect. There are small presences of things like dust mites and symbiotic microbes that a skilled Telepath will sense are missing. Jean is skilled, so she can tell the approximate area where the alien is. Jean's telepathic bluff does something, it makes her move to attack. Throwing knives seem to appear out of thin air aimed at Jean, Quasar, and Superman. The blades are Nth metal alloy, capable of slicing through energy fields, ignoring telekinesis, and even penetrating Kryptonian skin. They are moving at roughly the speed of sound. Linda sees the knives seemingly appear from thin air. she tries to telekinetically deflect them, but discovers that they are impossible to get a mental grip on, like oil coated ice. Oh -lovely-. Jean's caught by surprise as -whatever- it is suddenly goes at speeds she's used to only Quicksilver doing or Rogue suddenly going for an alpha strike. She's instinctively going to full blown telekinetic shield around herself as the throwing knives are hurled at her. The knives go through her shield and she lets out a yell of pain as one goes clean through her shoulder. She's lucky in an ironic sense - she's just a normal human as far as durability goes, so it just goes clean through her arm, at sonic speeds probably through the nearest building, possibly out the other side, and going, going, going.. Kal turns to look at Quasar when she arrives. He says to Adelah. "It's not what you think, Miss Abeni. I..felt or saw something or someone. Whoever it is, is working hard to cloak themselves. My vision is being blocked. Perhaps it's best if you leave this area. It could become dangerous." He hasn't met Quasar, so he introduces himself. "I assume you're here for the same reason I am. I'm Kal-El, but most call me Superman." Most people knew, but good manners went a long way. When the knives are thrown, Kal reacts from muscle memory. He catches the knives out of the air, though one of them does buzz him and grazes his cheek, causing a thin line if red to appear as a single drop of blood falls before the wound knits up on it's own. "As I was saying." He comments as he turns to where the attack came from. Well, throwing blades moving at supersonic speeds are something that Quasar would have no issue dealing with. That is, until they would penetrate her shield like it wasn't even there. Her quantum field is pretty much all that stands between her and the rest of the universe. The -painful- rest of the universe. The fact that it can pierce her shield so easily is something she is still unaware of since the blade stops an inch or so before striking her. "Whoa. Good reflexes." she remarks as her eyes track from the blade, to the hand holding it, and up the arm to Superman's face. "Quasar. Protector of the Universe... apparently." she says as she shrugs her shoulders. She -was- confident that she could have withstood that attack. Sure, she's wrong, but she doesn't know that now. "Getting odd readings off of that metal though." she states before she does her best to pinpoint its origin point. She inclines her head, "I -am- picking up radiation not native to Earth." And she looks to Superman once more as her bands scan his body, "It's.. interacting with your cellular structure Superman. Hold on..." That's when she sets her bands to start siphoning this radiation into them. Hoping to draw it away from Superman. "If my SHIELD briefings were correct, I believe you call it Kryptonite radiation. Attempting to counteract it now." Superman's words were punctuated with a captured blade and one streaking across his face. She didn't see them, but she felt their presence. It was only when it was captured that she was able to get a good look at them. "Honestly, that was faster than I could have reacted. The fact that I am unconcerned right now is merely my mind trying to make sense of what happened..." She truly did have a conflict of the mind. The fear she had quickly subsided because the threat and its removal happened so fast her body just didn't know what to do. "And I am still lacking answers, but considering all that is taking place, I believe they will have to wait. Besides, I have never seen you bleed. That is enough for me to weigh in on the situation." If only she had her Kree rifle right now, she'd probably be causing all sorts of destruction. Nope, nevermind. It's best left in safety where she can learn to use it later. Thing probably had enough kick to send her back dozens of feet anyway... She might be able to do something. Some system around here somewhere she can work with. Security, electrical grid, anything that could be potentially meddled with. She just needed access somewhere. Avril is partly correct...the blades were in a container with Kryptonite dust, there is some on them still, but much of it was spread to the air...it was calculated Superman might grab the knives, so becoming exposed to the Kryptonite. Quasar's sensors are an unexpected complication. Still invisible, Forerunner leaps forward with her hand knives flashing unseen. There is, however, a "hole" in the detectable radiation levels where her cloaking blocks out the emission. Linda feels helpless for a moment...but then thinks and concentrates her telekinesis, sending all the dust on the street into the air (along with fine gravel)...perhaps where it does not go will reveal the enemy. Fighting telepathically with an alien is difficult - particularly when they -think- so fast. It's hard to get in and out of their mind when you have to learn how to -get- into their mind first. Which is difficult mid battle. Jean tenses - things are going too fast for her to track the alien, even psionically. So, she stays low, putting her hand up to her bleeding shoulder, and trying to seek -out- just for the disruptions of the alien's presence in the hope that as the melee goes on she'll be able to try and get a better read on it. Kal will be leaving the mental battles to the ones suited for it. His own mind was warded seven ways from Sunday by J'onn, so he wasn't worried about getting mind controlled like Kara. However, just as Quasar informs him about the kryptonite, he starts to feel it. He drops to a knee. "This trace amount won't kill me, but if I can't purge it, I won't be much help to any of you in this battle. Watch out! It's coming!" He felt the displacement of the air molecules when it moved, So, a null field in the background energy wavelengths. Quasar has all kinds of little ingenious tricks she could do with those bands. Or more to the point, things Wendell is trying to teach her to do. But what does Avril choose to do? Well... much like when she first put on the bands. Point.. and click. She points hands towards that null zone and lets loose a blast of pure energy. To be honest, she's not sure what her maximum output is, and as such, it's a lot like aiming a 75mm cannon at an outhouse. A blast several feet wide flares through the zone... likely blasting a hole in a building even -if- it hits its target. "Is there something I can work with here to assist in this endeavor? I know how to work with computers. Very well," she emphasized heavily of her skills. She didn't think she had to say much, but if given access, she could go to town. All hopes of that seem to be failing at the moment. Looks like she'll need to trace it out on her own whatever she can hack into. Superman is enduring some poisoning and she just felt the heat of a blast fire off and put a hole into a building. "I'll take that warning and find someplace safe." Barring all that now, there's some fast moving weapon heading their way. She headed off trying to find someplace safe and out of the way, but more importantly, something she could work with. She could monitor the battle from elsewhere, get an idea of where the attacks and abilities were concentrated, then launch a strike if she could. Maybe she could meddle with the electrical grid around here. A flare of energy hits at something nearly undetectable, briefly outlining the figure as a negative image in the brightness before they are knocked back THROUGH the Lexcorp building leaving a gaping hole in the tower. The figure in that brief flash seemed almost elf-like, slender with long pointed ears. Linda realizes a problem immediately, "If that blast knocked out any supporting members, that tower could come down." Lex is hardly her favorite person, but hundreds of innocents work in the building. She is in her costume and seeking a point to provide support in an instant... Jean Grey grunts to Linda telepathically ~You, get back out there and fight. I'll handle..~ Jean goes to focus, her hand up on her arm as it bleeds and she goes to try and telekinetically brace at lower ends of the building to try and help keep it upright and stable long enough for an evacuation or some sort of diabolical giant transformation to a head of Luthor that will start monologuing as to how he will kill Superman. Superman suddenly blurs and stuffs himself in that hole that's missing out of the building. He holds it up. "Go deal with that thing and get it out of the city. You battle it here and thousands of people could get hurt." Kal is sweating hard, it's obvious that he's not okay, but he will hold up this building because no one else can. "I'll hold this until the people evacuate." His gaze is hard as he stares at Quasar. "Think twice, act once. Now go stop that thing." He turns to Adelah, "I have an idea. Do you think you could hack a traffic pole, expose the wires. drag one over..and shock me with it?" No one else can. Harumph. Quasar could easily brace the building. She was about to in fact before superfast Supes ran in to do it. "You need energy?" she asks as she lifts up off the ground and does her best to follow any trace of the null-field she spotted earlier. "If we leave you though." she says to Superman. "Odds are it'll just walk up and stab you while you do your powerlifting trick." She shakes her head and goes -full- active on her scanning. She's basically a beacon to anyone else who can sense energy. "I will find a way. Just hold on!" Adelah moved off to find a light pole. They were in abundance around here, thankfully. So, she got to work with one. She utilized a laser pen to begin removing the protective plates off it and began to engage with the small control within the light. She just needed to make it lose function just enough to up its power output. As the light began to flicker and flash, she took an available car and jumped into the driver's seat. She opened the glovebox and looked at the info inside. "I will remember to compensate you for damages to your car, Mr. Johnson." Once inside, she buckled herself in and floored the gas pedal, driving the car into the pole hard enough to knock it over and expose it. It's okay, she's a professional. She's done this before. Linda lets Kal take over supporting the building and flies after the thrown alien. Having been hit as hard as she was by Quasar, Viza-aziv is momentarily stunned, a visible blue-skinned alien who is struck before she can recover by Linda...though to her chagrin her might is perfectly matched to Forerunner and the Alien is only buffeted about by a blow that would lay most creatures out. Adelah is easily able to get what she needs. Jean...well perhaps she could do something to get the Kryptonite dust off Superman... Jean Grey is grunting as she tries to focus, and she speaks to Kal-El psionically SHe's trying to just rapidly and if she can telekinetically brush off as much of the krypotonite dust with her mind as possible - it's difficult to sense exactly wehre it is, so Jean is just trying to make a dull telekinetic -yank- that would go alon to take up any foreign particles and residue and hurl them off with all the power she could muster, if possible, from far away and with trying to not distract the others from preventing the building collapse! Kal looks over at Jean when she contacts him and nods. He was ready. He braces himself for the telekinetic assault. The kryponite dust scrapes against his skin creating small cuts. He hisses under his breath, but holds up the building, "Come on Adelah." He murmurs before saying out loud, "After she shocks me, Quasar, I need you to hit me with solar radiation. Yellow spectrum." Having spotted the target, Quasar is about to rush in to engage but hears Superman. "Seriously." she mutters. "Fine." She holds her hands up before her and makes a sphere of golden energy, one which pulses with energy... it even -looks- like a ball of plasma, a miniature sun. Then she gestures and it floats over to float in front of Superman where it begins to glow.. BRIGHTLY. Even as a pair of Nunchaku form in Avril's hands during her rush towards this enemy. "Please stand down." she remarks, "I'd really rather not cause any lasting harm." Adelah was able to down the pole enough to be able to get some wiring and tear it up from the ground as she ran along, with proper materials, of course. No way was she just letting her hands go all over that. She had to make her way past the bright ball of light, adjusting her vision accordingly once she approached. "Have at it," she jabbed the live wire right into Superman's body. It was a crude method, but one that ought to work and one she needed to get away from quickly. She could feel the static from it and the power passing over her body. She may not be in direct contact, but she's close enough that it's bothering her. Forerunner realizes that her chance at Superman has passed. With the flick of a switch she vanishes back into the Bleed, headed to the Monitor's base hidden in the far reaches of the place between dimensions. Superman's plan seems to work, the electricity removing what little Kryptonite remained and the solar energy recharging him. Team Luthor power armors are deploying advanced repair technologies to restore the building to like new condition, the building is back up to code by the time Quasar and Proxima return. Jean Grey is slowly getting up, and groans as she sees the building stabilizing. The others will take care of it.. Jean, herself, is thoughtful. What exactly would the type be to target a.. She thinks they were out to kill Superman.. The redhead laughs - all right, that doesn't narrow down the list at all. When the live electrical wire comes into contact with him, his muscles seize up. Smoke billows up from his body and after a moment he coughs out a green cloud which is carried away by the wind. He grabs a couple of cars to wedge against the building. A shot of heat vision and he welds them together, fusing them into something that would hold the building up. With that done he walks over to the orb of energy. "Thanks for your help, Adelah. Now please get to safety." He absorbs the energy, it was like sun dipping. With his strength restored, he's finally ready to take this enemy on. He rises into the air only to see the assasin vanish. "Hmm. Now I wonder who she was here for." He projects mentally, ~By the way, thank you Miss Grey.~